Woke up at 5 am this morning to fire up the Weber Kettle. On the agenda; slow smoked pork shoulder I'll later pull and place between homemade potato buns. For anyone who has never had a pulled pork done on a smoker from start to finish, it really is a life changing experience.
Most pulled pork you get in restaurants (outside of BBQ country) is slow braised pork shoulder that's pulled and mixed with BBQ sauce ... and there's nothing wrong with that. When done correctly, it's still delicious. Pulled pork on a smoker is a day long commitment; you're usually looking at about 60-90 minutes per pound, so an 8 lb pork shoulder will take around 12 hours to cook at 225F.
I started the process 3 days ago; first I did a 5% brine for 48 hours. This is where a large bus tub and an extra fridge in the garrage come in handy. The brine was:
- 10,000 grams water - 100%
- 500 grams kosher salt - 5%
- 300 grams sugar - 3%
After 48 hours I rinsed the buts and then let them sit uncovered in the fridge on a wire rack for another 24 hours. This allows the salt and sugar in the brine to evenly distribute itself throughout the meat.
Now comes the early morning wake-up call.
The rig; a standard Weber Kettle with a Smoke EZ extension ring, a Pit Viper fan for air flow & a FireBoard controller. The Pit Viper Fan plugs into the FireBoard controller, and the fan is automatically set at 0-100% power based on my kettle's 'oven probe.'
On the coal grate I place a metal ring with a bowl of water on top. This helps to moderate the temperature and the moist environment helps the smoke better adhear to the meat early on. Around the metal ring I put about 2 chimenys worth of coal, and then light about another 12 pieces of charcoal in a seperate chimney. Once ashed over (about 15 minutes), the hot coals are evenly distributed on top of the charcoal. This allows a slow, long, sustainable burn. I finish with a 50 / 50 mix of apple and pecan wood chunks scattered about (not chips, and NEVER soaked, always dry). Set the FIreBoard using my iPhone app to 225F, and we're off to the races.
Once the smoker hits 150F (which happens pretty quick), I close the bottom damper all the way, and the top one is closed by about half. I allow the smoker to coast up to 225F while I rub the pork shoulders with mustard and BBQ rub of choice.
I put one probe in each shoulder so I can monitor their progress throughout the day, and start my 12 hour count down.
